Certain silylated unsaturated amines are known in the prior art. Giannini and his co-workers in 1967 and 1968 synthesized compounds of the structure CH.sub.2 .dbd.CH(CH.sub.2).sub.n NHSi(CH.sub.3).sub.3 (Polymer Letters, 5, 527-533 (1967) J. Polymer Sci.: Part C, No. 22, pp. 157-175, 1968) and polymerized them using classical Ziegler-Natta catalysts. However, it has not been shown in the prior art (so far as we are aware) how to copolymerize propylene or other alpha olefins with such amines in the presence of highly active contemporary catalysts, i.e., titanium chlorides on magnesium chloride supports and having internal donors such as an alkyl phthalate or esters of aromatic carboxylic acids, to achieve the high molecular weights for which the lower olefin polymers are known. The copolymers so produced are useful for the presence of the amine functional groups covalently attached to or in the polymer backbone; various functions can be placed on the amine groups as will be discussed below.
Diallyl amines have been shown to form linear polymers in aqueous media in spite of their di-unsaturation; see Butler et al U.S. Pat. No. 2,926,161 and Hoover et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,412,019, for example. While diallyl amines and their quaternized counterparts are commonly commercially copolymerized with acrylamide, and are suggested for copolymerization with other acrylic monomers such as lower alkyl acrylates, acrylonitrile, various vinyl and styrenic monomers, it is not believed they have been successfully copolymerized with a lower olefin by use of a Ziegler-Natta catalyst system, which would be expected to be attacked by the amine.
In European Patent Application No. 88900936.1 (see corresponding PCT International Publication No. WO88/08856, Nov. 17, 1988), we (two of us) disclose methods of protecting the oxygen of hydroxyl groups in certain compounds having polymerizable unsaturated groups so the compounds can be used as comonomers with lower olefins. It is also suggested that a similar system of protection can be used for amines having polymerizable unsaturated groups. This application is particularly concerned with copolymerization of lower alpha olefins and amines having ethylenically unsaturated polymerizable groups and protected from reaction with highly active Ziegler-Natta catalysts by the silyl groups defined herein.